‘Holy Grail’ of vintage hockey cards among ultra-rare collection up for auction

Quebec City-area hockey card collector Simon Bourque’s award-winning archive of hockey history is a so-called “Holy Grail” of the hobby and will be going on the auction block, where they're expected to fetch millions of dollars.

Photograph by: HANDOUT/Classic Auctions
, Postmedia News

What’s being described as the greatest collection of vintage hockey cards ever assembled is set to be sold by a Montreal-area auction house for an expected windfall reaching into the millions of dollars.

And among the hundreds of pre-Second World War rarities being put on the block from Quebec City-area collector Simon Bourque’s award-winning archive of hockey history is a so-called “Holy Grail” of the hobby: a 1923-24 card featuring Bert Corbeau of the Toronto St. Patricks.

It’s one of only a handful known to exist because of an Ontario candy company’s ploy to limit the number of grand prizes it had to award — a new set of skates — to children who collected the complete set of 40 players. While cards featuring the NHL’s other stars were produced by the hundreds, the Corbeau card was “short-printed” to ensure there were few contest winners.

Bourque’s collection includes that full run of cards — the “Paterson Hockey Bar” series — and dozens of other antique batches of souvenirs featuring such early hockey greats as Howie Morenz, Cyclone Taylor, King Clancy and goalie Georges Vezina. One early card featuring the legendary Montreal Canadiens netminder, immortalized in the name of the trophy awarded annually to the NHL’s best goaltender, has an estimated value of $50,000 alone.

Bourque’s collection covers “every single set ever produced between 1910 and 1942,” said Marc Juteau, president of the sports memorabilia dealer Classic Auctions and organizer of the sale.

The “unbelievable” level of preservation of Bourque’s cards also distinguishes them from other collections, added Juteau, who noted that most of the sets are the highest-graded examples known.

“They are in the best condition one could ever find and, obviously, this makes them very scarce and desirable to collectors,” he noted. “No collection like this has ever surfaced in the hobby, and most likely — once it’s sold — nothing like this ever will again.”

Hockey card sets first appeared in Canada in 1910 as the sport’s top teams were gaining widespread popularity in the pre-NHL era. The collectibles were typically issued by chocolate-bar or chewing-gum manufacturers to attract children and boost sales of those products. But makers of cigarettes, coasters and other items aimed at the adult market also offered miniature portraits of the day’s hockey stars.

In recent years, two complete, 45-player sets of the 1910-11 “Sweet Caporal” tobacco company hockey cards — the earliest in Canada — have been sold by Classic Auctions for more than $150,000 each.

Bourque, the 61-year-old president of a civil engineering firm, has been an avid hockey-card collector since he was about six years old. He said in an interview that he would scrape together whatever funds he could over the years to build and then keep improving his collection, financing the project by selling off lower-grade duplicates and other collectibles on eBay and elsewhere.

“I made a lot of sacrifices, because I was not a wealthy man. But I am always a passionate man,” said Bourque, adding that he decided to auction his hockey-heritage treasure when it became virtually impossible to add anything new or better to what he already owned.

“There’s no more challenge for me, because I think I have the best,” he said. “It’s like, the job is done.”

The initial online sale featuring about one-third of the collection begins this week, Juteau said. Two other auctions are to be held next year to sell the remaining sets of cards.

The consignor admitted that it will be difficult — despite the expected financial bonanza — to watch his collection get broken up and sold to hobbyists all over North America or beyond.

“The cards could go everywhere,” Bourque acknowledged. “But I would be very happy if two or three or even one Canadian collector buys it all.”

Juteau, whose company collects a fee of about 20 per cent of all sales, said collectors are drawn to the hobby not only for the challenge of finding and acquiring rare items, but also for the history and sporting legends evoked by the souvenirs.

The Penetanguishene, Ont.-born Corbeau, for example, was a member of the Canadiens’ first Stanley Cup-winning team in 1916, was the first player to have suited up for both of Canada’s most iconic hockey franchises — the Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs — and was also the Leafs’ first captain (albeit temporarily) after the St. Patricks were sold and renamed during the 1926-27 season.

Corbeau is also remembered for his tragic death. In 1942, he invited dozens of fellow workers from a Midland, Ont., foundry to take a weekend break from their intense war-production efforts and join him aboard his 24-metre boat for a day of sun and fresh air on Georgian Bay.

A sudden storm, however, doomed the outing; Corbeau and 24 others died when the boat struck a sandbar and was swamped by waves.

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Quebec City-area hockey card collector Simon Bourque’s award-winning archive of hockey history is a so-called “Holy Grail” of the hobby and will be going on the auction block, where they're expected to fetch millions of dollars.

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